Society Matters | Volume 30 No. 1 | Autumn 2020

Volume 30 No. 1 | Autumn 2020 4 Lifting young women from poverty – one sewing machine at a time An SVD project in the Chad Republic is helping young women escape from a life of poverty and prostitution by not only training them in sewing skills, but providing them with a sewing machine when they graduate. The gift of the sewing machine means that the young women can take the skills they have learnt and put them into practice by earning their income from sewing. The Marie Poussepin Sewing Training Centre was founded in 2007 by the parishioners of St Pierre et Paul Parish in the Diocese of Moundou in Chad. Parish Priest, Fr Thierry Koula SVD, says it was established to help create a better future for the young women of the parish. “The main reason for its creation was to give a better future to the poor young mothers and young girls who have dropped out of schools and who were exposed to prostitution and other abuses,” Fr Koula says. The centre accepts poor young mothers from any culture and religion. “Due to the dire economic situation of the Chad Republic, many parents do not school their girls or the parents school them only to a certain level and then stop paying their school fees,” he says. “Those girls, as they do not go to school, get easily pregnant and become mothers at the age of 14 or 15. Without any job or training they turn themselves into prostitutes for their living.” Fr Koula says the training program lasts three years and is focused on sewing, basic French and Maths, cooking, and transformation of local products. “At the end of the third year, the centre has to help each graduate with a sewing machine and its accessories in order for the graduates to start their work,” he says. “Each sewing machine costs about the equivalent of 130 Euros. “Unfortunately, the parish cannot afford to purchase the sewing machines for the graduates and this is due to the fact that the majority of the students do not pay their tuition fees and the parish is too poor to financially support the centre. “This situation has pushed us to seek financial support from various generous donors in order to purchase the sewing machines for the young mothers that graduate.” Fr Koula says that through the generosity of our benefactors and Partners in Mission in the AUS Province, the Sewing Centre was able to buy sewing machines for the six graduates last year. “We are very thankful to the Mission Office of Australia,” Fr Koula says. “We assure the donors that we are keeping them in our humble prayers.”